challenge to obama care. cnn special election coverage continues right now with brooke baldwin and john king. ♪ signed, sealed delivered i'm yours ♪ >> what a night for this family, with victory in hand, four more years in the white house locked in, president obama prepares to head back to washington, where a hard fought campaign pales in comparison to the challenges that lie ahead. the nation is drawing closer and closer to the fiscal cliff. hello and good to see you here on this day after election day. i'm brooke baldwin at the cnn world headquarters in atlanta. >> i'm celebrating the day after. john king in washington. hey, brooke. >> good to see you. >> it is good to see you. talk on capitol hill is turning to compromise immediately after the election. listen here, the senate majority leader democrat harry reid. >> it is better to dance than to

fight. it is better to work together. everything doesn't -- >> see what the house speaker john boehner has to say. he speaks live next hour. meantime, the biggest battleground still hangs in the balance, the election is not yet over in florida. the nation's largest swing state too close to call. oh, yes, brooke, they're still counting the absentee ballots. >> we'll go there. also happening right now, the market. we have to look at this, plunging down 264 points right now. investors turning their attention from the election to the challenges ahead, including, we're going to be talking about this pretty much until the end of the year, the fiscal cliff. speaking of, to alison kosik live from the new york stock exchange. alison, the dow down triple digits. why the sell-off? >> i know the number is eye popping. you're seeing stocks off the lows of the session. even though wall street didn't necessarily want to see president obama win again, the losses you're seeing aren't because of the election. they're because of the european debt crisis. ecb president mario drogy said

germany's economy is slowing. that's what is spooking investors. and the fiscal cliff, the realities of the fiscal cliff are coming front and center again because congress and the president have two months to go before they need to get a deal going on that situation. brooke? >> alison kosik, we'll keep a look at the numbers there and check back in with you throughout the next few hours. john king, i want to begin with you, in the election itself, i don't know if you slept a wink last night, if much of the nation probably went to bed watching you, through everything last night, what was the biggest surprise in your opinion? >> the biggest surprise, brooke, over to the magic wall and take a look. the biggest surprise is we'll talk more about this in the hour ahead, we're waiting to see who gets florida's 29 electoral votes. a lot of the talk heading into the election is we were waiting on the morning after, it would be in ohio. it went for the president. another surprise for me, if you look at this map and go back to 2008, i'll switch maps in a minute, these are the two take aways for mitt romney. a closer look in terms of the

popular vote. from an electoral college perspective, the president getting 303 now. if he gets these 29, he cracks 330. that doesn't want to move because i have the telestrator on. governor romney at 206, we'll see how florida goes out. the president, 365 last time, he'll come in below 2008. what was surprising, 7% unemployment throughout the term, no president in history being re-elected since franklin roosevelt with that and governor romney was able to change two states and the two most reliably republican states that president obama picked up last time, indiana and north carolina. that was the most surprising thing to me if you look at the electoral map. and i'll bring the national map up, look at the latest. he eeked this out because of california. 50-48. trust me, at the white house, this is a narrow victory, but winning the popular vote and the electoral college will help them. we have a very difficult governing challenge ahead. had governor romney won the popular vote, and president obama won the electoral college, then you have a lot more, shall we say, grumpy people this morning. >> grumpy people this morning. people were perhaps grumpy watching a little bit last night, depending on your

political perspective. i was watching you. i feel like the turning point was when you start doing the math, almost impossible for romney to hit that 270 mark once, you know, nevada went obama and then missouri and then it was the final projection because of ohio, right? >> because of ohio. missouri went for governor romney. as you watched early on, you knew coming in that governor romney had a harder path to 270. you knew he needed this. we haven't called that yet. the president is leading now. it is blue on this map because that is the vote total. you knew he needed this, he needed virginia and ohio and somewhere else. as we watched the vote results come in, we could start here in ohio, a point early on, if you look at this, look at the map, you say look at all that red, the republican had to win. but you look up here and you asked me earlier about surprises, one of the surprises was it came in, where it came into play, was the obama campaign did exactly what it said it would do. without a primary challenge, it spent months and millions saying let's find all these african-american voters in cuyahoga county, key place in

cleveland, have their names, their contacts, turn them out and they did. 69 to 30. running for re-election as an incumbent in a bad economy, it is hard to do this. you don't have the excitement of a primary challenge to get people in. it is hard to do this. and they did it. so the ohio math, even though governor romney kept it very close, closer than john mccain, got obvious as the vote results came in. there was virginia, where romney was leading for a lot of the early count, but, brooke, you have to -- if you study the states and go, romney's running it up here and all these rural counties, up here, again, not by as big a margin as you did four years ago, but part of president obama's coalition is the suburbs where you find college educated women and in the case of northern virginia, also going latino population. if you looked at the demographics of the electorate and studied these states, early on, it looks like romney might make a run for it, no. wasn't going to happen. >> based on my twitter feed, people love watching you and those counties and that map. i'm just curious do you dream

with your hands moving and pointing toward counties or in the country? >> i'm told i talk with my hands now more than i used to. >> thought so. >> but it is like anything, when a mechanic leaves the garage, i hope he stops thinking about the engine. when the mailman goes home, i hope he stops thinking about the mail. when we say good night, i mean see you later. >> president obama has very little time to savor the victory of his because he's scheduled to head back to washington in the next hour. jill dougherty is at the white house for us right now. jill, what is on tap for the president? once he returns right there? >> reporter: yeah, he comes back, what, in about three hours, three and a half hours. and, you know, brooke, he's still got that desk, still got the same desk, and it is filled with many of the same things that he had before he went away to chicago to watch the election. and that is, of course, i mean, you would have to say, number one, bring the country together, and that is just, you know,

huge, whether that can happen is one giant question. and it is tied, you know, to the second issue, which is the fiscal cliff that we keep referring to. $7 trillion worth of potential tax cuts. i should say tax increases and spending cuts that could have to mandatorily have to come into play in january. he's also talking about tax reform, immigration reform and then finally oil independence. so those are just the domestic things. and then don't forget about, you know, huge, like right now, almost as we're speaking, the chinese government is having -- its party congress and they'll be choosing a new leader. that will be a big challenge for the president, and an issue of how you manage the rise of china. you've got iran, et cetera. it is a lot on the desk. >> jill dougherty, thank you, at the white house. john, to you. >> not always the case, but the romney campaign actually thought it was going to win the election, which makes this quite

a stinging loss for the republican nominee. it leaves the republican party with a lot of soul searching to do. our national political correspondent jim acosta is our man following the romney campaign. jim, what are you hearing from the inside? >> reporter: john, former campaign advisers say mitt romney is expected to get rest and spend time with his family in the days after the hard fought election. as for what happened last night, the adviser tells me the campaign thought they were going to win this election up until the very end. that's consistent with what we heard from mitt romney on his campaign charter heading into boston last night. he thought he was going to win too. he said he had no regrets and was proud of his campaign. but as for why this campaign went down in defeat, that adviser tells me that they are pointing to what the obama campaign was predicting, they were going to have a good turnout in the word of the adviser, the obama campaign was right. as for the future of the republican party, i talked to a top conservative leader inside the republican party who said the gop will have to do a better job talking about immigration reform with latinos if they have

any hopes of winning a presidential election in the near future. john? presidential race is settled, but we're still looking at key races to determine the final numbers for the balance of power in the united states senate and the house of representatives. our chief congressional correspondent dana bash is with us for breaking news in north dakota. >> cnn can project the democratic candidate for senate, heidi heitkamp, in north dakota, has won that seat. she's kept that seat. it was an open seat in democratic hands. so look at this, this is now the balance of power. and, you know, democrats argue it is not status quo because they have actually gained seats in the senate, and if you look at this, they actually have 53 democratic seats, 45 republican seats, there are two independents here. you see one over here, that stands for bernie sanders who is the independent senator from

vermont, he caucuses with the democrats. this represents angus king, the newly elected senator from maine, who is an independent, and says he will decide who he caucuses with when he gets here. but there are now no longer any of those white seats which we were not able to call in here. it is completely filled out. we now know what the exact balance of power is going to be in the next congress and what it is is, again, 53 democrats, two independents, 45 republicans. this, in north dakota, is another surprise for republicans because it is a red state, and they thought if there is a retiring democrat, this would be a no brainer to pick up for them. but democrats ran a pretty conservative democrat in heidi heitkamp. most issues she ran against the president and she was able to pull it off against a pretty solid republican candidate as far as republicans were concerned. there you have it. we have the full picture of the united states senate now. >> maybe smart candidate selection by the democrats. what is the word?

it certainly is embarrassing, particularly in that seat, which most republicans thought was a gimme when a democrat retired in a red state. embarrassing, humiliating. what is the talk inside the republicans on, wow, we thought we could get over 50? >> i think depressing is the best word. you -- we saw very blunt public statement from john cornyn, the senator in charge of the national republican senatorial committee, they put this out last night, saying that effectively the republicans have to rethink and do some soul searching about how they elect candidates because, look, mitch mcconnell, now the minority lead, will remain the minority leader. he was already upset about what happened two years ago that some of the candidates that republicans elected in the primary season simply couldn't beat democrats who they thought were very beatable. the same thing happened here. not necessarily in this case, but in several of these races, they just had some unforced errors and they're very depressed and it is just, look, we talk about it all the time this is the way our system

works. and particularly for republicans, they have genuine primaries in many of these states and it is the people in these states that elect their candidates to go up against the democrats. and it hasn't worked for them in many -- at least it hasn't allowed them to get the majority over the last two cycles. >> soul searching in the republican party, not just at the presidential level. and, brooke, $6 billion spent on the campaign, the democratic president stays, the senate stays in democratic hands, the house stays in republican hands. some people are going to wonder, why do we spend all that money? >> quite a chunk of change. chunk of change. dana mentioned angus king making two independent senators in this next congress. just a heads up, we'll be speaking with that independent live from maine about who he plans to caucus with. he may not tell us. but we're going to ask. up next, one of the big reasons republicans didn't have a shot at winning the senate. losses by tea party candidates. we will speak live with a chairwoman of the tea party express about who is to blame.

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already cliche, this was a status quo election. democrats control the senate. republicans keep the house. democrats in the white house, one of the big reasons the gop couldn't win the senate, losses by tea party candidates in missouri, ohio, indiana and north dakota. in the house, tea party favorite and former presidential hopeful michele bachmann kept her minnesota seat, but a margin of less than 5,000 votes. and no winner declared yet in florida's 18th congressional district, tea party back incumbent alan west trails his democratic challenger patrick murphy. joining me now is the tea party express chairwoman amy kramer. tea party was the big buzz out of the 2010 elections. you have republicans the morning after 2012 saying the tea party is to blame. fair criticism? >> i don't buy it. look, you have moderate candidates that lost as well. eric erickson was talking about it earlier this morning with, you know, when the republican party continues to put up the same candidates, as in george allen and tommy thompson and

rehberg in montana. there say lot of blame to go around. i think at the end of the day what this shows is that conservatives and the republican party have a big challenge ahead of us. before the election, the polls showed that the people were concerned about the economy and jobs. coming out of the election, the exit polling showed people are still concerned about the economy and jobs and they're not happy with the direction the country is headed. so what that tells you is that people voted on personality. the candidate they liked the best, and not policy and we have to do a better job on educating people how policy in washington affects our lives out here in the homeland. >> we talked about this in the past, when many of the new tea party candidates came to washington after 2010, a lot of people criticized because they wouldn't compromise out of the gate. i said, you know, even if you don't like their policies, they're doing what they promised to do in their campaigns, they run ads saying they wouldn't accept new spending. what about now, with the fiscal cliff approaching and the president or white house unit saying reached out to

congressional leaders today, the president will be back, leader reid will be back, if a fiscal cliff proposal comes up that has a decent amount of spending cuts, but the republicans have give revenue increases, would the tea party give that its blessing? >> well, this is the thing, john, no offense to you, but the media has created this hot topic buzzword that is a dirty word, compromise. and everybody wants to place the republicans and the democrats in a boxing ring and who comes -- see who comes out on top. well, the fact of the matter is party politics got us into this mess. what we need to do is find some common ground to get this country back on track so that america wins. so we're back on that path to prosperity. but right now, just under president obama's term, for every one job created, 75 people went on food stamps. that's not sustainable. one job can't cover 75 people on food stamps. we cannot continue down this path. you can go and tax as much as you want, but eventually you're

going to run out of people's money. at some point we have got to cut the spending and they have to do what is best for the people across this country and not what is best for their party, and their job, there in washington. >> if you look at the exit polls last night, nationally, a large majority of americans agreed with the president's position that those making $250,000 a year or month should pay a bit more in income taxes. i won't use the word compromise. let me set it aside. if they're in a room, in good faith, trying to reach a deal and if speaker boehner can get the president, for example, to say we're going to cut more forred me okay we'for ed medicare, we're going to make cuts here, again, if tea party lawmaker called you and said, amy, if i vote yes, are you going to pull the rug out from under me, what would the answer be? >> john, i want them to do what is right for america so that we live within our means. where washington lives within their means.

>> if there are a lot of spending cuts, i'm trying to cut through what we're talking about here, i get your point about living within their means and i know you believe it in your heart, i've spoken to you many times, but if you get cuts on the table, cuts on the table that make you think thank god, here we go, we're make prog gres, but the only way to get them is to give some in revenues, are you willing to do that? >> it just -- i mean, you know, i'm not an economist. but what i said is i think everybody has to find some common ground and figure out what's going to work here. this is not sustainable. and people -- i mean, america realizes it. we cannot continue down this path we're going down. and the thing is, the president, i mean, if nothing else, what happened last night shows that this country is deeply divided. if the president will do what he said in his speech last night, and be willing to work across the aisle, then, you know, i think there are people that are willing to do that. but if he continues to go down the path that he's done, the past three and a half, almost

four years now, he's been the most divisive president we have ever had. he's not willing to work. it is harry reid who under his failed leadership has not passed a budget in over three years. the senate hasn't. and the president, every budget he's put up has gotten zero votes, not even one vote for his own party. so, you know, it has to go both ways. we have to figure it out. it is going to be a tough job, but it is not going to be easy, but this is what these people are hired to do and we expect them to do it. >> aim kri krame my kramer, app time today. you can see there, still a lot of energy, a lot of passion on the morning after. the people who had a lot at stake in this election, even though the people have spoken, they're still going to have some people who are defending their positions and we're going to see how this one goes forward, the governing part of this for me gets fascinating. >> you just hear the anger and the frustration and the passion in her voice, and it's pretty

much, you look at the 113th congress, similar to the one we have, and are we going to have the same back and forth, back and forth as we had this last year? we shall see. we shall see, john king. it is not hanging chads this time. but florida once again trails the nation in getting its presidential vote counted. find out the reason for the holdup and what this means for future elections. we'rwith questions fromtump sombing elections.kies do you know where your polling place is? maybe somewhere around my house. mine's just, right over that way. well you can find out exactly where it is using bing elections. it's a good day for politics. which way do you lean politically? conservative. republican. well, using the bing news selector you can find news from whichever way you lean. (together) social on this side, financial. which party is currently predicted to win a majority in the senate? the republicans? would you make a bet on that? no. are you chicken?

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in the hours after the polls closed, while results were coming in across the country, in florida, thousands and thousands of voters still lined up waiting to cast their ballots. and today, the results for miami-dade were finalized. let's see how florida stands now. barack obama, look with me, 50%. mitt romney, 49%. just fewer than 50,000 votes between them. but a call can't be made in florida just yet as the ballot counting continues. john zarrella following the story for us today. tell me about the results in miami-dade. >> reporter: we have been waiting for some final numbers out of miami-dade county to come in. and they did send all the

election workers home last night because it had been such a grueling, long day. they finally now this morning have results from 829 precincts. but the largest county in the state of florida. there is still absentee ballots, may have all of those done by this afternoon, and there are still provisional ballots that will be thursday or friday before they're completed. but in the 829 precincts, all in now, interesting numbers, the president, 521,329 votes. mitt romney, 317,382 votes. president with big numbers there, and compared to four years ago, he did better this time than four years ago, when he got 499,000. mitt romney did not do as well as john mccain did four years ago, when john mccain had 360,000 votes as opposed to mitt romney's 317,000. so those numbers will help the president to pad his lead in

florida in a state that remained too close to call. brooke? >> still counting. john zarrella, thank you. john king, back to you in washington. >> still counting. shocking. one of the nice major revelations, though, republican campaign strategies, look, they have to change in the future as the demographics of the country change and change dramatically. so how does the gop adapt and will there be resistance? that's next. [ male announcer ] you build a reputation by not breaking down. consider the silverado 1500 -- still the most dependable, longest-lasting full-size pickups on the road. and now we've also been recognized for lowest total cost of ownership -- based on important things, like depreciation, fuel, and maintenance costs. and now when you come in, you can trade up to get a total value of $8,000 on a 2012 chevy silverado all-star edition. from outstanding value to standing the test of time, chevy runs deep.

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here is something the gop is going to have to ponder long and hard. president obama won re-election. the dographics are changing and rapidly. let's bring in john avalon and margaret hoover. john is a senior political columnist and margaret is a

political consultant. one of the questions going in was could the president in a tough year, bad economy, keep his coalition together. young voters, about the same. african-americans, the same. latinos, cracked 10% nationally for the first time. what is the biggest lesson for the republican party? >> i think, you know, formally republicans are saying going into this, we have got to go back and reinvest in our infrastructure when it comes to hispanics. i was on the bush/cheney re-election campaign and we got 44% of the vote. it's not that we haven't done this before it not that we don't have a track record of reaching out to hispanics, we just didn't do it this time. clear numbers with youth and women that we have to revisit. >> she mentioneds t mentions th, the way they talk to us, the tone, and it is 2010, george w. bush said path to citizenship,

then path to status, and change their policies or tone or both when it comes to hispanics? >> this is a result of policies. mitt romney tried to tack to the right and paid a price for it in the general election. we know from george w. bush that republicans can play competitively with hispanics. his brother jeb bush invested heavily in that philosophy as governor of florida. republicans need to reach beyond their base. one thing this election shows they canned no ed cannot depen large part of the vote. >> when he's not on the ballot in four years, will the youth vote stay like that? will he get -- will the democratic candidate get that chunk of the latino vote, will african-american turnout stay up at 16% range, but 13% range, but the 97% for him? >> the thing about the president, he's the leader of the party now and has four years to solidify this coalition and leave the party stronger for the next -- for his predecessor.

the thing we know about millennials and any age group they come of age in terms of their partisan identity they vote for one party three times in a row in a presidential election, it is party identity, it gets harder over time. >> the democrats start with an edge. they made a risky bet this election and it worked out because of their intense targeting, ground game. they were able to make up for some of the deficiencies that they gambled. i think this is president obama's coalition. this is a unique historic political figure, someone more inspiring, especially to the african-american community. it will be iconic for probably our nation's history. so that impact is dramatic. republicans are going to have to start reaching out beyond their base, but democrats investment will pay off more. >> back to the republicans as we close, where does that breakthrough come from, the outreach to latinos and the

proper policy and tone. the policy proposal, college educated women, look back at us, does it come from washington, whether the republicans are still essentially the same house of representatives or will it come from out in the country where you have the president winning re-election, but 30 republican governors out there. >> it has to come from both. it has to be a meeting of grass tops and grassroots. the reality is the writing is on the wall. we all know as republicans we have to go back and think through where did we lose votes, where are we losing and how will we make up ground. the thing stunning about women, even though we're a pro-life party, 78% of republicans believe the choice for women's health care is between a

next.

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here is a piece of history. unfolding before our very eyes. voters in two states, washington state and colorado voted yesterday to legalize marijuana for recreational use. they're not talking about now medicinal use. they're talking about getting high, period. here's reaction from the legalization camp in colorado. >> i'm feeling amazing, the best day i've seen in my life.

>> obviously it is always nice to be right, so, but you know, we're really happy and most importantly it is wonderful we're not going to see another 10,000 coloradans arrested and made criminals in this coming year. >> okay. here's the statement from normal, the long time pro pot lobbying organization. the significance of these events cannot be understated. tonight, for the first time in history, two states have legalized and regulated the use and sale of cannabis, mare yaij legalized here. a whole lot of regulations to set up first. there is the matter of federal law, under which marijuana is illegal. keep in mind, this is against the law, federally. the department of justice released a statement within this past hour reminding folks of that. joining me on the phone from london, jonathan culkins at carnegie melon university and author of the book "marijuana

legalization: what everyone needs to know." john culkins, is this the milestone that pot smokers say it is? >> oh, it absolutely is. and it is more than the beginning of marijuana legalized for recreational use. it is also legalizing which affects state law for profit large scale commercial production to supply that use. >> so when we say marijuana industry, tell me what 2014 will look like in colorado. >> and it is very hard to figure out because it depends what the federal government does. if the federal government goes hands off, then you will see as you pointed out a legitimate industry, legitimate producers, manufacturers producing a range of products including candies with mare yaijuana in them and in stores. >> you know, in terms of dollars and cents, there is a lot of money put into backing the legalization of marijuana. who in colorado, who in washington state provided the big money what was it small time smokers, growers, someone else?

>> no, in washington state there was one major donor, rick steves. but other than that, the major donors were people from outside of the state. >> what about -- let me read this first and then we'll get to the department of justice. this is from the governor of colorado, john hickenlooper. he said this, the voters have spoken and we will respect their will. that said, federal law still says mare waylae marijuana is a drug so don't break out the cheetos or goldfish too quickly. i don't know what he's talking about there, john. but how is all of this going to shake out between the states and the feds who say this is illegal? >> it is a nightmare for the governor and for the president because the best possible circumstance would be that they reached some sort of negotiated circumstance, like the federal government says if you make good faith efforts to prevent diversion to other states, then we won't interfere with your efforts to regulate the industry. there is going to have to be

dialogue and compromise because the laws just absolutely conflict now. >> have you been in touch? what are you hearing from the department of justice as far as taking the time and the money to prosecute? >> traditionally the federal agents have gone after high level people, 200 pounds and up, or at the border. and they have the right to go after people who have smaller quantities, and the big question is whether they stay only at those very high quantities or if they do start to fill in for some of the lower level enforcement that in the past has been done entirely by state and local. >> jonathan culkins, professor at carnegie melon university, thanks for happening on the phone with me from london. john king, marijuana, recreationally legal in two states now. how about that? >> watch how that one unfolds. we'll watch as it plays out. thousands of people still suffering from the impact of sandy. they may soon be hit by another storm.

this time a nor'easter. rob marciano joins us next with the details. ♪ ♪ we're lucky, it's not every day you find a companion as loyal as a subaru. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

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victims of superstorm sandy are bracing for another powerful storm, a nor'easter, moving up the east coast, threatening areas still very much recovering from last week's storm. i want to go straight to rob marciano. rob marciano in staten island where i know a lot of people were hit hard last week and here they go again. >> reporter: and then this. it is even beyond another storm that has rain and wind and surge. we have got temperatures that obviously are close to the freezing mark. they have been below freezing the last couple of nights and now the rain turned to snow. this is just not a good situation. you go that way, a quarter mile, half mile, just past the trees, that is lower harbor of new york, the atlantic ocean. that's where the storm surge came over a week ago, five, six and in some cases seven feet

high, pouring down these streets, wiping out everything in their path, any car that was on this street was completely washed back further inland and that's where damage goes for several more blocks. up and down the blocks, outside of these homes, you see this sort of debris. anything that people have been able to somewhat save since this storm. we have been talking with the family that lives in this house and they have been kind enough to show us around, see what kind of damage they have endured. since a week has gone by, they have ripped all the flooring out, ripped all of the side walls out as well, just trying to get that damaged stuff out of here so that it doesn't mold, sleeping upstairs in the cold with absolutely no power. here is what nick had to say to our viewers last hour. >> everything that i own is here and i'm trying to save it. my wife, my kids, my best friend mike, and i'm just going to lose

everything. i mean, my body is shutting down. there is no words to explain or express the stress, the pain, the suffering. >> reporter: heart breaking stuff. you're looking at an actual weather instrument inside of nick's home. temperature around 40 degrees, relative humidity 80%. not exactly livable conditions. but they're going to stick it out, brooke. they had some looting the first night of the storm. and they're afraid if they evacuate tonight that that's going to happen as well. they're trying to get a space heater cranked up because temperatures continue to drop as this nor'easter rakes up the coast line. >> heart breaking and the fact that nick's story is one of so many in both new york and in new jersey. rob marciano, thank you very much. we're thinking of him and so many others. john king, just awful, first the storm surge and now a lot of snow. >> a lot of snow, cold,

hardship, families displaced. it is horrible. good that rob and our other correspondents are keeping track of the story. as president obama gets ready to head back to washington, one immediate task at hand, yes, filling a second term cabinet. secretary of state hillary clinton, the treasury secretary tim geithner, both planning to leave. up next, a short list of possible replacements. plus, breaking down mitt romney's place in history.

some perspective about the election results, about the challenges facing the president's second term in office and mitt romney's place in history. joining me is my colleague in "the situation room," mr. zelzer. how will history remember mitt romney in. >> they'll remember him in part for his family. in part it will be a negative memory, meaning the kind of

campaign he ran was almost the last of an era, appealing to white male voters, to older voters, and people will remember the latinos, the women, whose vote he couldn't capture. i think a lot of republicans will be scratching their heads and thinking about how to run a different kind of campaign four years from now. >> and, wolf, the recriminations are immediate. people saying it was romney's fault, it was romney's fault. interesting, paul ryan issued a statement saying, polite saying thank you for the opportunity, we don't know what happens to him. but the party won't spend a lot of time fretting over him, i think. >> he ran a strong campaign. the problem he had was the democrats, especially the campaign, the obama campaign, the super pacs, over the summer, after he got the nomination, they painted him in such a negative way, that strategy of hammering away at bain capital, the swiss bank accounts, the cayman islands and the 47% tape came out, that controversial tape, it really hurt him.

he did well in the first debate, almost recovered, got it close, got to give him some credit, but that negative attack on him, it really was successful when all -- negative politics sometimes works. >> sure does. and in some i was hways it has harder for him today. let's turn our attention on the governing challenge. the most popular member of the obama cabinet is the secretary of state hillary clinton. she has given hints she might stay on a little longer. everybody thought she would leave right after the election. if you're the president of the united states, and both from a global perspective and a domestic perspective, she brings you value, what do you do now? >> yeah, she's incredibly useful both for what she can do abroad and also for her relations here in the united states, with the media, with members of congress. john kerry is one person who has been mentioned, who has both the foreign policy experience and some of those legislative connections, which are actually quite important to the job.

susan rice is another person who has been mentioned who has less kind of gravitas on capitol hill, compared to john kerry. my guess is president obama will try to find someone relatively comparable who can shine in the media, who can do well with members of capitol hill as they deal with the challenges abroad. >> the democrats kept control of the senate, wolf. it is slightly easier when he's talking about confirmees. but the benghazi dustup put a tarnish on susan rice. does that have a bomb ofpotenti more bruising confirmation fight? >> the television appearance, five sunday talk shows in which she said what she said and given how angry the republicans are on this whole benghazi thing, the accusations they're making and they're going after her directly, i don't know if the president wants to start off a second term with a bruising confirmation battle for susan rice. so from her perspective, i think it has hurt her.

john kerry, he did a pretty good job helping in the debates. i think he's got a good shot at it. we'll see if anybody else emerges as a candidate. >> republican senators tend to be kind to one of their rivals. we'll see how that plays out. brooke, want to be a candidate for the second term cabinet? >> i'll pass. thank you, though. good luck to those who would like to try. that's quite a daunting job, john king. thank you. we have been watching these races, pontificating over who might be in the cabinet. got to tell you, there were a number of other important victory speeches last night, in addition to that of the president. ahead, the highlights you missed. >> they said it couldn't be done when the -- but when the people stand together, nothing is impossible. of a cliff is the guoliang tunnel. what?! you've got to be kidding me. [ derek ] i've never seen a road like this. there's jagged rock all the way around. this is really gonna test the ats on all levels. [ derek ] this road is the most uneven surface, and it gets very narrow. magnetic ride control is going to be working hard.

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>> what a night for first family. president obama heads back to washington this hour. victory in hand. but fiscal cliff very much so looming large. hello, i'm brooke baldwin at the cnn world headquarters in atlanta. >> i'm john king in the cnn election center in washington. the president could be returning to a capital city more willing to compromise, at least when it comes to avoiding the fiscal cliff. listen to the senate majority leader harry reid, talking with the house speaker john boehner just this morning. >> this isn't something that i'm going to draw lines in the sand, he's not going to draw lines in the sand, i don't believe, and we need to work together. >> do you think a deal is possible? >> of course. >> conciliatory tone there. we'll see what the speaker has to say. he's speaking live half an hour from now. >> we'll take that live. wall street stumbles here this day after election. take a look. the dow down 262 points, closing bell at just 60 minutes. investors turning their attention from the election to money troubles both here and abroad.

worries about we're going to be talking about it for a bit here, the fiscal cliff and europe's recession and germany taking a toll. we're keeping an eye on the dow. >> back to politics. adviser to mitt romney tells cnn the romney campaign thought they were going to win. of course in the end they didn't. gloria borger is here to talk about how president obama won. when you look at the map, florida is not call eed yet, th president is leading at the moment, a narrow victory in the popular vote. not as big a win. but on the electoral map, almost as big a win. was it a surprise given it was a -- you didn't have any pro democratic big win at his back like last time. >> not a sweep here. neither of the candidates had coattails either. this wasn't what we call a wave election. and so it -- some of the battleground states were a surprise to us because they were so tight, and they all seemed to move in one direction towards the president. i think the reason that occurred

is because the president knew the people who were going to vote for him in his new coalition, and he expanded it rather than narrowing it, even note republicans said, look, we got voter intensity on our side, we have enthusiasm on their side, but what they didn't have was the demographics of the changing american population. >> let's take a close look at that. let's start first by age. a lot of people thought the youth vote would drop. it went up a little bit. look at this. overwhelming for the president. he got the younger voters and got the turnout. they spent months and millions finding voters inand signing them up. the president kept that number constant. this number stayed pretty static. mitt romney won the senior vote, but probably not by as much as he needed to. >> he needed probably to make that number a little bit higher, maybe paul ryan could have been a bit of a drag on him with that particular number. but, again, the president didn't

expect to win with these voters. he was mining younger voters and, of course, ethnic voters, minorities and also women, which we'll talk about too. >> let's move it over, bring that over, let's do it by gender. if you bring i up here -- let's try that again. she gets funny sometimes. here we go. 47% -- a long day. >> is she a she? >> he, she, it, very long day yesterday. governor romney wins the men vote, but a majority of the voters were women yesterday, gloria, and the president won with 11-point edge there. an 11-point edge in a majority of the electorate -- >> that's a problem. again, you know, mitt romney has an advantage with men, but he didn't have as much of an advantage with men as the president had with women. and as you heard it all the conventions, suddenly everyone's role model was their mother and they wanted to appeal to women. but i think the republican primary also had a lot to do

with this, when issues like contraception, roe v. wade starts coming up in primary fights, very difficult for mitt romney to take a turn, his wife tried to help him do that, but to take a turn towards american women and say, you know what, we're really on your side, we want you to vote on the economy, which, of course, is a good case to make to women, but there were other issues they also cared about. and the republican party as a whole, not just mitt romney, you can't sort of blame this on mitt romney, the candidate himself, it is the republican party that has a problem with women voters. >> legacy problems you might say. women voters, latino voters, get out here in west, tough time ahead. >> it is not enough to just do well with white men anymore. >> that party can't win in this changing country. >> it will shrink. >> gloria, thank you. brooke? >> we now know democrats keeping the white house. we know democrats keeping control of the u.s. senate. republicans keeping control of the house. but we're adding an independent

to the senate, senator-elect angus king of maine. he's being a tad coy today, not revealing which way his political affections may bend. everyone in the senate wants to know will king caucus with the democrats or the republicans. he rallied his opponents, democrat and republican last night, and will replace retiring republican senator, veteran senator olympia snowe. here is part of his victory speech. >> people don't care who gets the credit. they don't care who is winning and losing from year to year. and they're tired of the false choice that always seems to confront them. as a guy said to me early on this campaign, i've always wanted the chance to vote for none of the above. and you're it. >> senator-elect king joins me on the phone from brunswick, maine. congratulations, sir. senator-elect. you like how that sounds? >> thank you, yes.

sounds pretty good. but i'll go by angus for now. >> okay. angus king, let me ask you this, everyone wants to know which way you caucus and i have a feeling you won't tell me yet. i understand you requested meetings with mitch mcconnell and harry reid here. tell me, in those meetings, who will you listen for, what are you waiting for to be the turning point to decide which party you'll be caucusing with. >> there are two criteria i honed it down to. one is the extent i can maintain my independence and the second is how effective i can be on behalf of maine. and that's what i'll be talking about. i ran on the platform of trying to call them as i see them, not be locked into a party position one way or the other. and that's what i want to try to maintain. but on the other hand, it isn't a stunt, i'm not going down there just to plant the flag and -- >> not a stunt. >> and not get anything done. >> not a stunt. john king, jump in. >> governor king, john king.

we have known each other quite some time. you're senator-elect, i'll call you governor. will you talk to olympia snowe about. she worked with president on some issues, whether president clinton. she was a key swing vote sometimes for president bush and president obama on issues like the stimulus and health care. will you consult her and ask her where do you think i'll be more effective? >> absolutely. i already have. she was fist person to call me last night and offer congratulations. we had a very warm conversation. i hope to meet with her either up here in maine later this week or if she's in washingn next week. but yeah. i ran for the mere image of the reason she left. she couldn't take it anymore and i ran because i think we just got to -- we may have to try it a different way. i'm an independent, i was an independent governor. but absolutely she's one of the first people i want to talk to. >> governor king, you bring up senator snowe. she was on the show. i was talking to her back in

september and she was explaining why it was she was officially done after decades being in washington, why she was done with congress. take a listen. >> none of the issues that we are now confronted with in the fiscal cliff, for example, were issues that were a surprise. they were all anticipated. even the debt ceiling crisis didn't have to be a crisis. putting the country through emotional travail, that's what is such, i think, a travesty. >> governor king, what will you do differently? >> well, i hope i can be a bit of a bridge between the two parties. when i was governor, i was an independent and worked with both sides. and was able to achieve quite a bit. there were times when i agreed more with the democrats and times i agreed more with the republicans. but, you know, i think senator snowe basically said, as a member of a major party, i can't make it work.

so my philosophy is doing the same thing harder isn't likely to achieve a different result. so i'm trying -- i'm coming in a different way and i got to tell you, it is the number one thing i heard from people in maine and i can't believe it is only people in maine who are reading it this way. congress has an approval rating of something like 9%. and we just -- we got to start talking to each other because we got serious problems and this business of bickering and fighting and blaming, the public doesn't care about that, they want the problem solved. >> you say you'll call it like you see it, call it like you see it as you prepare to become a senator. some of this may be dealt with in the lame duck before you get here. the fiscal issues, the fiscal cliff facing this country, can you get to the place the united states needs to be without on the one hand some deep cuts including programs like medicare, and some new revenues? >> the answer to that is no, you cannot. it has got to be both and i

believe virtually everybody in washington with the possible exception of grover nor quist knows that. and that's -- you got to do it that way. i'm proud to say i was endorsed by erskine bowles and alan simpson in my campaign because some kind of framework like they proposed i think is exactly the direction we have to move in. and the sooner we can do it and put it behind us, the better we will be, the debt and the economy. >> senator-elect angus king, now governor, good to talk to you today. we'll see you when you get in washington. we wish you luck. it is a funny place, as you know. >> i'm looking forward to it, i think. >> good luck, sir. good luck. thank you for jumping on the phone. i appreciate his candor. his candor there, in talking about meeting in the middle. let's talk about the president. in his victory speech last night, or the wee hours of the morning, president obama pledged to act on climate change in his second term. this topic bound to get his opponents riled up. to talk about this and the election's impact, we're

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president obama still celebrating his victory in chicago. due to depart later this hour and head back to washington. he'll arrive late this afternoon, returning to the white house firm with the knowledge he gets four more years. joining me now to discuss this from new york is fareed zakaria. let's focus on what he mentions last. >> we want our children to live in america that isn't burdened by debt that isn't weakened by inequality, that isn't threatened by the destructive power of the warming planet. >> sandy had it have some influence on that last part, the warming planet. barely a mention in the first term, marrynair nary a mention campaign. will it be significant now? >> it is an interesting question, john.

i think the truth is barack obama did do a fair amount with regard to climate change in the first term. that's what the whole green energy push has been. that's what the higher fuel efficiency standards are. it is all efforts to lower in some way america's carbon footprint and the natural gas piece of this has been a huge boon. we have declined in carbon emissions over the last four years, largely because of natural gas. still what you mean is will we get a carbon tax or cap and trade system, no, of course not, as long as we have a republican house. but there is a second piece of this, which you could do. the first part is about mitigating, preventing climate change. does a second piece which is adapting to it, building levees, dealing with coast lines, rebuilding infrastructure, making ourselves more resilient, that piece of it could be a very powerful thing to do because, by the way, that's another word for rebuilding infrastructure, which would be an economic boon, bring

down unemployment and it would be an effective response to one element of climate change. >> president in a second term starts thinking about the l word, legacy, and what other people think of president bush, the war in iraq and afghanistan, they can look to africa and say that's an impressive piece of the bush legacy. when this president looks at the world, you remember we talked about this in the past, he told dmitry medvedev, give me until after the election, i'll have flexibility. when you look at the world what do you think in a second obama term what do you think? >> the first thing, i think when he look at his legacy, he's going to look for the consolidating of health care. make that work. make obama care work. i think he feels 20, 30, 40 years from now people will remember him and presidents get one or two lines as the guy who did universal health care. in foreign policy terms, i think he wants to be the man who moved america and america's attention squarely to asia, who made america a pacific power because he recognizes to be a superpower in the 21st century, you have to

be a pacific power. i think he wants to, you know, get us out of the middle east, lower the military footprint of america's involvement if a region i think he feels at the end of the day is just a lot of problems without a lot of benefits. >> you mentioned asia. the president was pushed and nudged to take a tougher stance towards china. will that disappear or will the president have to be at least for a while tougher with beijing? >> i think it will grow. china and the united states are not headed in a good place for economic reasons, for geopolitical reasons. there are kind of incentives and structures bringing the two countries into a certain degree of conflict. remember, many of the pressures we feel here, there are similar pressures in china, lobbies in china that feel that the chinese have been too accommodating to the united states. they need to stand up to them.

they are, after all, so the argument goes in beijing, they're the largest creditors of the united states and they should use that power in some way, s so i think unless this relationship, the critical relationship of the 21st century, unless it is well managed, we could find ourselves with more conflict than we want. we don't want a trade war between the two largest economies in the world. >> fareed zakaria, thank you, my friend. >> thank you, john. >> always good the day after an election, stopped counting, we start thinking about policy and governing. good to have a smart guy on your team. >> wonderful to have smart guys on the team. while most americans had their eyes glued to who would be elected president last night, voters in two states approved same sex marriage for first time at the ballot box. ahead, we'll look at whether this is a turning point here for gay rights in this country. compn designed for men's health concerns as we age. it has more of 7 antioxidants

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you know, this election could be a major turning point for gay rights. and really for the country. voters in two states saying i do to same sex marriage. take a look at the results here from maryland.

we'll show you maine here in a moment. keep in mind, maryland and maine join six other states already allowing men to marry men and women to marry women. but maine and maryland here, they're setting a precedent because they're the first states to see gay marriage approved by voters and not just judges or lawmakers. want to bring in cnn senior legal analyst jeff toobin live in washington. jeff, obviously this is i had store niic e i-- historic in th states where it won out. ballots still being counted. was this a big surprise to you? >> it was, all the polls were very close. it is not a big surprise, but, look, when it is the first time, and, remember, 30 plus states had taken public votes on same sex marriage over the previous decades, and not once had it passed including even liberal states like california and proposition 8, a few years ago. the fact that the voters have

spoken on this issue is a very big deal and it could really mark a sea change on this issue as public opinion polls are marking a sea change on how people feel about same sex marriage. >> the fact that voters specifically have spoken here in maryland and maine, especially maine because they did a 180 from the last time they were voting on this particular measure, do you think this is potentially a sign, a harbinger of things to come in terms of more victories in this country for gay rights? >> certainly the trend is entirely in this direction. think about 2004, after all, isn't that long ago, eight years ago. karl rove and the republican party said, look, how can we build turnout in states like ohio. i know, we'll put a referenda against same sex marriage on the ballot, so that will generate a lot of anger and hostility and turnout against same sex marriage. that doesn't work anymore. even after president obama declared his support for same sex marriage, mitt romney didn't

make an issue out of it, the republicans didn't make an issue out of it. it just illustrates how quickly the tide appears to have turned in terms of how the public feels about same sex marriage. >> as you point out, the margin is small, but the tide is turning. when you talk to opponents, let me quote the maryland marriage alliance, such a radical change in the definition of marriage will produce a host of societal conflicts that government exercising its enormous enforcement powers will have to resolve. jeff toobin, where does this go next, to the federal government, potentially to the supreme court? >> well, the supreme court has two possible cases this term, one, the constitutionality of the defense of marriage act, the other whether proposition 8, the california laws, is constitutional. so certainly we're going to hear from the supreme court whether they're going to hear those cases in relatively short order. other than that, the federal government is going to have to deal with some cases -- some issues regarding reciprocity, do they honor, you know, same sex marriages, but mostly i think it

will be in the courts and the states over the next few months and the next few years. it certainly looks like times are changing. >> times are changing. jeffrey toobin, thank you. john king, to you. up next, brooke, hate to say this, forget the celebrations, fiscal cliff, staring down congress and the president. not much time to rest this threat that impacts all americans. any minute, house speaker john boehner expected to speak live about where the talks stand with the president and the democratic senate. l, but i'm still "stubbed" up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't unstuff your nose. what? [ male announcer ] it doesn't have a decongestant. no way. [ male announcer ] sorry. alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms plus has a fast acting decongestant to relieve your stuffy nose. [ sighs ] thanks! [ male announcer ] you're welcome. that's the cold truth! [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus. ♪ oh what a relief it is! ♪ [ male announcer ] to learn more about the cold truth and save $1 visit alka-seltzer on facebook.

[ male announcer ] to learn more about the cold truth we'rwith questions fromtump sombing elections.kies do you know where your polling place is? maybe somewhere around my house. mine's just, right over that way. well you can find out exactly where it is using bing elections. it's a good day for politics. which way do you lean politically? conservative. republican. well, using the bing news selector you can find news from whichever way you lean. (together) social on this side, financial.

which party is currently predicted to win a majority in the senate? the republicans? would you make a bet on that? no. are you chicken? to start her own interior design business. she's got a growing list of clients she keeps in touch with

using e-mail marketing from constantcontact.com. constantcontact is easy and affordable. it lets her send out updates and photos that showcase her expertise and inspire her customers for only $15 a month. [ dog barking ] her dream -- to be the area's hottest interior design office. [ children laughing ] right now, she just dreams of an office. get a free trial at constantcontact.com. now that we know who the next president is, let me just let you know what we'll be talking about next, that being the fiscal cliff. these are live pictures as we are awaiting house speaker john boehner, he will be talking about the fiscal cliff, president obama and congress. they have to cut a deal or trillions of dollars worth of tax increases and spending cuts will kick in the first of the year. we do know that the president called speaker boehner and other

congressional leaders from chicago, very early today, to talk about the legislative agenda for the last few days, months of the year. >> speaker boehner, brooke, saying there is no mandate for raising tax rates. he said he had a pleasant conversation. this is the speaker with senate majority leader harry reid this morning and said he's not drawing lines in the sand. meanwhile, the leader reid may be signaling can't we work things out? >> it is better to dance than to fight. it is better to work together. everything doesn't have to be a fight. everything doesn't have to be a fight. that's the way it's been the last couple of years. so everyone should comprehend, especially my senate friends, that legislation is the art of compromise as consensus building. >> that was leader harry reid. we are 60 seconds away, just

about from speaker boehner. let me bring in here jill dougherty covering the white house for us today and senior congressional correspondent dana bash. in the moments we have remaining, we'll cut away, when we see the speaker in that live picture as we are all watching. we know he indicated sunday temporary fix might be in the works during the lame duck. post election, might that change? >> as far as we're told, at least his opening bid will be no. it won't change. he very much believes that temporary fix does not work. in particular because you're talking about a lame duck congress. but i have to give you a little bit of information that diedra walsh and i got on a conference call that the superb just wrpea wrapped up with his republican conference or caucus. he was starting out the call, we're told, really trying to buck them up, saying that we're not going to give in on our principles, that we, the house republicans are the firewall between the republican -- the democrats and the senate and -- i'll stop talking. there is the speaker.

>> good afternoon, everyone. let me offer my congratulations to president obama and the first lady and the vice president biden and dr. biden. like many americans i was hoping that this presidential election would turn out a little differently. mitt romney and paul ryan are good men, good leaders. i want to wish mitt and paul and janna and their families well. the american people have spoken. they have re-elected president obama and they have again re-elected a republican majority in the house of representatives. there is a mandate in yesterday's results, it is a mandate for us to find a way to work together on the solutions to the challenges that we all face as a nation. and my message today is not one of confrontation, but one of conviction. and in the week and months ahead we face a series of tremendous challenges and great opportunity. just weeks away from now looms the so-called fiscal cliff,

combination of automatic spending cuts and tax increases, mandated by law. within months of the fiscal cliff, congress will be asked to raise the nation's debt ceiling. around the same time, legislation will be needed to keep the government running as a continuing resolution underwhich we're currently operating expires. amid all of the short-term hurdles we face the greatest challenge of all, a massive debt that is smothering growth and exceeding the entire size of our economy. there will be many who will say that with the election over, we should confront the first of these challenges by simply letting the top two tax rates expire and pushing the sequester off to some other date. they would have us engaged in the same short-term temporary policies that have helped put us into this fix. and in essence they're saying let's have more of the same. let's agree to drive our economy off part of the fiscal cliff instead of driving it off the whole fiscal cliff and we'll

call it a day. that might get us out of town, but it won't get us out of the problem and it will also hurt our economy. we can't keep going on like that, and we can't keep setting the bar that low. it is time that we raise the bar. the american people this week didn't give us a mandate to simply do the simple thing, they elected us to lead. they gave us a mandate to work together to do the best for our country, and we know what the best thing to do would be, that would be an agreement to send a signal to the economy and the world that after years of punting on the major fiscal challenges that we face, 2013 is going to be different. it would be in agreement that begins to pave the way for long-term growth that is essential. if we want to lift the cloud of debt that is hanging over our country. we all solve the problem of our fiscal imbalance overnight and

certainly won't do it in a lame duck session of congress. and it won't be solved by raising taxes or taking a plunge off the fiscal cliff. what we can do is avert the cliff in a manner that serves as a down payment on and a catalyst for major solutions enacted in 2013 to begin to solve the problem. mr. president, republican majority here in the house stands ready to work with you to do what's best for our country. that's exactly what i told the president earlier today. that is the will of the people, and we will answer to them. and doing what's best means fully considering the impact of the policies that will be set in motion. the independent accounting firm ernst and young says going over part of the fiscal cliff and raising taxes on the top two rates would cost our economy more than 700,000 jobs. ernst and young also confirm that many of those hit with a rate increase will be small

business owners. the very people who both parties acknowledge are the key to private sector job creation. there is an alternative to going over the fiscal cliff. in whole or in part. it involves making real changes to the financial structure of entitlement programs and reforming our tax code to curb special interest loopholes and deductions. by working together and creating a fairer, simpler cleaner tax code, we can give our country a stronger, healthier economy. a stronger economy means more revenue, which is what the president seeks. because the american people expect us to find common ground, we're willing to accept some additional revenues via tax reform. there is a model for tax reform that supports economic growth. happened in 1986, with the democrat house run by tip o'neill, and a republican president named ronald reagan. in 1986, there too were skeptics who doubted the economic benefits of tax reform. well, those skeptics were wrong.

as stanford economist and former treasury secretary george schultz put it, the 1986 reform is the sort of unsung hero of the very good economic times we have had for a long time. the time has come again to revamp the tax code. if we do, he argues, will get a gusher and there will be a response and revenue will come in. but the american people also expect us to solve the problem. and for that reason in order to garner republican support for new revenues, the president must be willing to reduce spending and shore up entitlement programs that are the primary drivers of our debt. if we're seeking to impose our will on the president, we're asking him to make good on his balanced approach. the president called for a balanced approach to the deficit, combination of spending cuts, increase revenues. but a balanced approach isn't balanced if it means higher taxes on small businesses that

are the key to getting our economy moving again and keeping it moving. a balanced approach isn't balanced if it means we increase the amount of money coming into the coffers of government, but we don't cut spending and address entitlements at the same time. a balanced approach isn't balanced if it is done in the old washington way of raising taxes now and ultimately failing to cut spending in the future. a balanced approach isn't balanced if it means slashing national defense instead of making the common sense spending cuts that are truly needed. real economic growth eluded us in the first term of the president. without it, we can't solve our debt problem. for the purposes of forging a bipartisan agreement that begins to solve the problem, we're willing to accept new revenue under the right conditions. what matters is where the increased revenue comes from, and what type of reform comes with it. does the increased revenue come

from government taking a larger share of what the american people earn through higher tax rates? or does it come as a byproduct of growing our economy, energized by a simpler, cleaner, fairer tax code with fewer loopholes and lower rates for all. at the same time, we're reforming a tax code, are we supporting growth by taking concrete steps to put our kun tr country's entitlement programs on sound financial forming or will we duck the matter of entitlements, thus the rouot of the entire problem. closing special interest loopholes and deductions and moving to a fairer, simpler system will bring jobs home and result in a stronger, healthier economy. and history teaches that this is the right path to take. tax reform done in a matter in which i've described will result in additional revenue that the president seeks.

it will support economic growth which means more revenue generated for the treasury. and it will improve the efficiency of the tax system, which means additional revenue as well. listen, we're closer than many think to the critical mass that is needed, legislatively, to get tax reform done. president and i talked about it extension extensively during the summer of 2011. senator pat toomey and hensarling with the support of other republicans offered proposals in the so-called super committee last year that provided revenue via tax reform. now, the american people recognize that our economy, getting it moving again, is the only way we'll be able to balance the federal budget. the question we should be asking is not which taxes should i raise to get more revenue, but which reforms can we agree on that will get our economy moving again? there are two paths we can take

to get to revenue the president seeks. feeding the growth of government through higher tax rates won't help us solve the problem. feeding the growth of our economy through a better and cleaner tax code will. now, the president has signaled a willingness to do tax reform with lower rates. republicans have signaled a willingness to accept new revenue if it comes from growth and reform. let's start the discussion there. i'm not suggesting we compromise on our principles, but i am suggesting we commit ourselves to creating an atmosphere where we can seek common ground, where it exists, and seize it. and if we can't find common ground, it means we'll continue to operate on a tax code on a year by year basis. and it means we'll continue to extend major programs for a month at a time. it means we'll continue to face expiration of the government's borrowing authority. and we'll be on constant downgrade watch from our creditors. in a new testament there is a

paraable told of two men. one who built his house on sand, the other who built his house on rock. the foundation of our country's economy, the rock of our economy, has always been small businesses and the private sector. i ran one of those small businesses and i can tell you that raising a small business tax means they don't grow. if small businesses don't grow, our economy doesn't grow. and if our economy doesn't grow, we don't have a prayer of digging our country out of a hole that we call our national debt. this is why going over part of the fiscal cliff and raising taxes on job creators is really no solution at all. instead of building our house on sand, let's build it on rock. instead of raising small business taxes, let's start by fixing their problems. let's start by giving them some confidence and scertainty about what the future holds. for this to work, we need to plan for a serious process,

focused on substance, not on theatrics. it will require weeks of work, rather than a weekend of photo-opes. and it won't happen around a campfire, camp david or around a secret room of some air force base, or as much as i would like over 18 holes of golf. i think this will take time, but if we're all striving for a solution, i'm confident that we can get there. mr. president, this is your moment. we're ready to be led. not as democrats or republicans, but as americans. we want you to lead, not as a liberal or conservative, but as president of the united states of america. we want you to succeed. let's challenge ourselves to find the common ground that has eluded us. let's rise above the dysfunction and do the right thing together for our country. thank you, all. >> the republican house speaker john boehner delivering his first post election statement, focusing exclusively on the

country's decisions, the decisions the country has to make as it heads into the fiscal cliff. our senior congressional correspondent dana bash is with us. there was some conciliatory words in there, but as he planted the first flag, he essentially said, mr. president, you need to acknowledge you're going to cut entitlement programs and you need to give up on your biggest short-term goal, essentially the expiring bush tax cuts, higher taxes on the wealthy. speaker boehner saying no. >> that's pretty much exactly what he said, if you read between the lines. the tone really deserves to be highlighted because it is a different tone. and tone does matter here in this city, particularly given what we have seen over the past couple of years. harry reid was the same way, being very conciliatory, but very clear -- it was interesting the way he tried to throw what the president and he discussed, which didn't go anywhere, about a year ago, on debt relief, in his face, essentially, saying you did agree during those talks

to tax cuts that are lower than they are now. so you do have it in you somewhere. but he also made clear that he's going to stick to his idea that a temporary fix is not going to work. he wants to do something long-term, tax reform, entitlement reform. one thing about the politics of where he is, he had a conference call with his conference before going on at this press conference and he tried to buck them up and say, look, guys, you got to stick with me, but he also, we're told, made very clear in this private conference call that these members of the house republican conference have got to follow him and he is going to, in his words, make sure he doesn't get boxed out by the white house, but also doesn't get boxed in. >> the president placed that phone call. if you listen to the speaker, he wants the president to blink first. the president just won a campaign, kept his coalition in tact, including people who say mr. president don't cut medicare, including people who say, mr. president, you better get those higher taxes on the

wealthy. are we in the high stakes game of chicken. is that what this is, who blinks first? >> reporter: it is the opening gam but in this chess match which we'll try to put the president in a slightly difficult situation because after what they're saying is will -- we will be willing to increase taxes if you revamp the tax code and most importantly if you reduce the entitlements. and that's the issue right now. so -- but i do agree with dana that there is a different tone. he is saying we want to be led. that's very interesting phrase. we want to be led. but all of this, as we been reporting, he's using a teleprompter. this is very carefully phrased. it is, you know, read the fine print, because right now we're going into some very important but very complex period of negotiating the way out of this. >> opening markers being placed.

jill dougherty at white house, dana bash in studio and, brooke, as we throw it back to you, we had an election, we had the results, we know what congress is going to look like, what the white house is going to look like and this is one important giant question mark as the country teeters on the edge of the fiscal cliff. >> to your conversation about speaker boehner's tone, notice the color of his tie? did you notice that? purple. just saying. maybe the first thing he grabbed in his closet this morning, but i think there is no coincidence in politics these days. thank you all so much. it is no secret the relationship between president obama and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is, shall we say, a complicated one. how will these two work together in the president's second term? cnn's chief international correspondent crist ahristiane amanpour giving us a little perspective next. [ female announcer ] today, jason is here

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correspondent, crihristiane amanpour joining me live from new york. nice to see you here on this day after election day. huge, huge win, for the president of the united states, four more years, but let's talk big picture here. looking ahead, in terms of the global economy, what is the one thing the president needs to do in order to sort of help the world economically speaking? >> well, you know, you just heard speaker boehner talk about what needs to be done to avoid this fiscal cliff. he said clearly we need to send a message not just to the united states, but to the world that 2013 is going to be different. and today some of the reaction around the world has been one of some sort of eagerness to see whether the gridlock in american government, the gridlock in congress that we have seen and we reported on for so many months and years now will give way to some bipartisan action to make sure that the economy can move forward and this fiscal cliff is avoided, because they're very concerned in europe and beyond and you can see the

dramatic implosion of the eurozone with the dow dropping, all the problems we have got in greece with austerity, the parliament is considering, and on top of that, to think there could be some fallout from a u.s. fiscal cliff going over, that is not what they want. >> and here we have live pictures of the dow, tanking pictures of the dow tanking here ten minutes before the closing bell down almost 300 points here. so as we look at the economy moving forward as speaker boehner points out 2013 a big year, toipt ask you about the relationship between the president and israeli's prime minister netanyahu. because he had a not so secret preference for mitt romney this election. their relationship goes back years and years and years. in fact, i was reading one of the israeli newspapers. israel today ran no fewer than four opinion pieces just yesterday endorsing romney. what happens now, christiane, in this relationship between netanyahu and obama? >> well, what happens now is that obama is the president of the united states. netanyahu is the prime minister of israel.

and they have to work together. these are two countries which stand side by side. there in no doubt in anybody's mind that the united states stands firmly for the security of israel, the intercommunity knows. it yes, there has been a cool relationship between netanyahu and obama, however netanyahu did congratulate the president this morning and said the strategic reliance between israel and the u.s. is stronger than ever. i will continue to work with president obama in order to assure the interests that are vital to the security of the citizens of israel. so, again, no doubt where the united states stands the strong security and protection of israel. the real issue of course that has divided them, one, iran. a big problem. because israel wants to take a much more proactive potentially even military solution to that. and in the campaign you saw that president obama was trying to head that off. wanted no part of another war, at least not now. and wanted to give deploem si

negotiations continued stance. but it was taken from his wording that perhaps mitt romney as president might see the u.s. enter another war, and that might be over iran. so that's a big, big issue that's a huge problem for the united states. >> huge. >> don't even consider israel, but just the u.s. and will the united states, will the obama administration now use a second term, use that political capital, use political will to do what he said he wanted to do in the beginning. and that is so negotiate and offer a different relationship with iran. will iran respond? well, today one of the key foreign policy advisors who i've interviewed several times in iran to the top leader there said that talks between the u.s. and iran are not taboo and that if they're done over issues of mutual interests that might work. we'll see. it takes courage from both the u.s. president and the iranian leadership. we'll see how that goes. obviously another big issue is syria, brooke. >> huge issue is syria where the

u.s. goes forward. there was some movement in terms of britain today allowing this direct involvement with the rebels who are fighting the assad regime. we'll watch that postelection. and of course we'll watch whether or not we saw netanyahu at that big red magic marker in front of the u.n. general assembly. we'll see what obama's next move is in that standoff. christiane amanpour, always a pleasure. thank you. >> thank you. and we have the same president, the same parties in charge of both the house and the senate. now that the campaign is over, are there any hopes here that our political leaders will reach out across party lines to solve some of the big problems we face? that debate is next. ace is? maybe somewhere around my house. mine's just, right over that way. well you can find out exactly where it is using bing elections. it's a good day for politics. which way do you lean politically? conservative. republican. well, using the bing news selector you can find news from whichever way you lean. (together) social on this side, financial. which party is currently predicted to win a majority in the senate? the republicans?

would you make a bet on that? no. are you chicken? a short word that's a tall order. up your game. up the ante. and if you stumble, you get back up. up isn't easy, and we ought to know. we're in the business of up. everyday delta flies a quarter of million people while investing billions improving everything from booking to baggage claim. we're raising the bar on flying and tomorrow we will up it yet again. now is a good time to think about your options. are you looking for a plan that really meets your needs and your budget? as you probably know, medicare only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company.

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heard from speaker boehner complete with his, you know, purple tie here. conciliatory tone talking about how 2013 should be different. talking about the fiscal cliff, this combination of tax hikes and spending cuts basically set to kick in if congress doesn't come together and agree on something set to kick in in the first of the year. what do you make of his tone? and can we really expect the next four years to be different? >> well, the fundamental issue is that president obama holds all of the cards. basically, the expiration of the bush-era tax rates, it's baked into the cake. if nothing is done, you see a sharp increase in those taxes. so basically president obama knows he can get the republicans to agree to something very dramatic. i imagine we're going to see an extension of most of the rates but a creation of a millionaire's tax bracket and i think president obama's going to try to peel off a few republican

votes in the senate in order to pass something with kind of an appearance of bipartisan support. i think it's shrewd of him politically because it allows him to realize one of his campaign issues. and it's a position of weak republicans right now. i think on the part of boehner he's trying to do the best he can with a weak hand. >> a lot of republicans waking up saying they're doing a lot of soul searching. saying mr. president, it's your time to lead. how does he lead differently now? >> obviously he has to start with the relationship he has with speaker boehner. that really is a fundamental issue. here's the other piece. we can talk about the need for president barack obama to need. but also speaker boehner's going to have to lead his caucus. and that really is a problem because, look, you have some folks in his caucus, a significant number of individual who is are very far on the right. many of them who were saying in the last negotiations, look,

forgot that allow us to fall off this cliff. we have no problem going down that route. the question is, how is he going to be able to get them under control, to get them to understand that they're going to have to make some concessions? >> how does he do that? how do you get past the visit reel. >> the president has an easier task in trying to deal with his democratic caucus. he's going to need speaker boehner to do a very good job trying to get his caucus under control. and that really is the wild card because speaker boehner i do believe wants to cut an appropriate deal. the question is, will his caucus go along with it? and the last thing he wants to do is lose control of that and possibly see them elevate eric cantor. >> no more punting. 2013 is going to be different. roland martin,